Before you get too shocked I must mention that I do think sometimes, although it does hurt the old and dried up brain cells. This time I started thinking not just about Mr. Jobs but about Apple in general, more specifically their image and products. (I just had a tasteless joke pop into my mind about Jobs and apples and doctors :().

Since the IXxxxxx phenomenon started Apple has been in the news quite a lot. However most of that news has not been positive. Apple has been shafting loyal customers left right and center yet if this article is any indication they keep coming back for more.

Now bear in mind that I am not an Apple hater. I really have no feelings for them in any direction. To me it is just another product that I could take or leave. Yes, even here in Turkey I have seen and played with the IXxxx line of products and played around with their computers, notebooks and etc. etc. so I am not talking out of my fundamental black hole.

What I am more concerned about, and I have seen the same thing with windows people too, is why so many people like to be ripped off with expensive poorly made products and keep coming back for more. They look good, but then so do other products. They are easy to use, but no harder than other products. There is really nothing super outstanding about Apple products except for the image the name has.

Are people that conceited that they buy into a brand that has a record of problems just to seem cool? That doesn't make them cool in my eyes, it just makes them seem like sheep waiting to be fleeced to me. If they buy because the product has some feature that no other equivalent product has then I have no problem. Then again I am not a fashion orientated Borg :)

It appears to me that Apple has changed the business focus that made it successful and this is damaging it. The effects are not very noticeable right now as hysteresis is hiding it and momentum is tiding it over but I think it wont be long before customer backlash sets in and then the juicy fruit will dry up. Maybe because the core of Apple is not in the best of health the maggots have free reign to take over. I just hope that the rot does not continue and Apple returns to its roots so people can again be proud of it.

5 Comments

Apple is so much more than Steve Jobs but the big problem is that when they sacked him Apple nearly went belly up. Re-appointed as CEO came with the release of OS X and the first iMac, those colourful all in one boxes that became instant hits and started the iFrenzy. This has meant that Apple's corporate image is very closely tied to Steve Jobs and I don't think he can do a Bill Gates' and slowly back out of the corporate leadership role. Only one thing is sure, eventually Steve Jobs will have to give up the CEO role, one way or another, and then Apple will have a battle to keep up the "design leader of cool" mantle whilst still being a successful corporation.

The problem with Apple and Windows is "Featuritis". It is very very hard to keep things simple! Simple wins big always!
Google - simple one box where type in what you want?
iPod was so successful because it was a simple interface that anyone with 10 minutes of practice could master.

Featuritis is very insidious. It starts mutating development teams like Amoeba. Mutating development teams then start feuding over territory and development becomes a tangled mess, with final integration taking longer and messier and the end product uglier! That's why Vista took almost seven plus years and still is a mess!

Any iNewProduct will work well as long as they keep it tight within Apple and one guy like Steve Jobs making final decisions. He usually insists on features that make sense for Gramdma (Locutus - There I go again :-))

Technical products are no place for democracy! Keeping the end user in mind always wins big!

The problems with the new Iphone are a definite misstep for Apple, but I wouldn't extend that to the rest of their products, at least not yet. Most Apple product users I know are very happy with their equipment's reliability and overall engineering.

I think how Apple handles these Iphone issues over the next couple of months will be very telling, for good or for bad.

Windows Vista's problems are much deeper than "featuritis", Microsoft has to draw the line in the sand that breaks backwards compatibility before they can move on. This was the start of Apple's market surge. IMHO there are three software applications/bundles that are the major hurdle for Linux to overcome - Adobe Creative Suite, MYOB/Quicken and AutoCAD. The open source (and commercial options) just aren't quite feature rich enough.

I have a 24" 3.06ghz iMac ( running Windows Xp and Ubuntu in Fusion virtual machines) and an iPhone and they have both proven to be outstanding products.
Here in Australia the iPhone works just fine and I love it's extensibility through the app store. Guitar Toolkit - being a brilliant example of what is on offer.
Apple design and quality is way ahead of the competition and I am delighted I have had the sense to return to the fold after a flirtation with Windows for a few years having initially started using Macs in 1990.

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